The Idea of India

The key book on India in the postnuclear era, with a new Introduction by the author.

Our appreciation of the importance of India can only increase in light of the recent revelations of its nuclear capabilities. Sunil Khilnani's exciting, timely study addresses the paradoxes and ironies of this, the world's largest democracy. Throughout his penetrating, provocative work, he illuminates this fundamental issue: Can the original idea of India survive its own successes?

Amartya Sen

A splendid-and timely-book . . . Spirited, combative and insight-filled . . . Khilnani has woven a rich analysis of contemporary India and its evolution since independence. I am inclined to agree with [him] on the robustness and staying power of the secular idea of India. -- The Times Literary Supplement